The Environmental News Service, May 23, 2000
Russia Eliminates Environmental Agency
In a move to restructure the federal government's executive branch,
President Vladimir Putin has eliminated the state committee for
environmental protection along with several others. They were the
state committees for forestry, northern regions, land policy,
cinematography, and youth policy. The committee for environmental
protection was the main government body responsible for monitoring
and analyzing all environmental sectors except those related to nuclear
issues.
The decree was made public over the weekend and triggered immediate
criticism from leading environmentalists. The environmental and forestry functions
were transferred to the Ministry on Natural Resources, which licenses
development of Russia's oil, natural gas and other mineral deposits.
Indicating that he will be subordinating environmental concerns to
the development of natural resources, President Putin Saturday completed
his new Cabinet by appointing as energy minister a relative unknown, Alexander
Gavrin, who has close ties to the country's biggest oil producer, LUKoil.
In an interview with the "Moscow Times" Monday, former committee head
Viktor Danilov-Danilyan called Putin's decree "absurd." He called for continued
independent monitoring and testing of the environmental effects of natural
resource development. But Putin's order does not transfer the environmental
experts from the former state committee to the Ministry on Natural Resources
and how the monitoring will be conducted is still unclear.
In a statement issued last week, Greenpeace Russia called the elimination
of the environmental protection committee "a step away from the civilized
world." "Even the presence of a shabby State Committee for the Environment
is better than no environmental monitoring body whatsoever," said Greenpeace
Russia spokesman Alexander Shuvalov. Vladimir Slivyak, coordinator of nuclear
programs for the Moscow based organization Ecodefense called the move,
a step towards "de-environmentalization of the state."
Working with environmental issues is not an easy task in Russia.
President Putin was director of the Russian Security Police, or FSB, in 1998
and 1999. He is known to share their belief that environmentalists may
be working against the best interests of Russia. Many Russian groups and individuals
were accused of espionage for their work against radioactive contamination
and for nuclear safety in 1999 and 2000. In arresting environmentalists
and others, the Russian police have made wide use of the practice of planting
drugs on them, human rights activists have said.
Back to the Publications page
Back to the first page on Abolishing of Russian Environmental Agencies
Back to the If Everything OK With Forests In Russia page
| 
